The sensational new revelation that MH370 was in a holding pattern for 22 minutes off Indonesia raises a host of questions, says aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey.
Mr. Godfrey is using a revolutionary new tracking technology called WSPRnet.
Using a set of tools (see below), Mr. Godfrey says he is “able to detect and track aircraft anywhere in the globe and at any time currently or historically going back as far as 2009.”
This system has been undergoing a number of tests that have been set up by an ex-Qantas Captain Mike Glynn and adjudicated by AirlineRatings.com which have been very successful.
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Having verified the technology Mr. Godfrey is tracking MH370 and found that MH370 entered a race track holding pattern at around 19:12 UTC.
“I was surprised to discover that not only did MH370 enter a holding pattern but that the holding pattern lasted for around 22 minutes.”
Mr. Godfrey says that the holding pattern raises a number of possible questions:
- Was the pilot in negotiation with the Malaysian Government?
- Was the pilot waiting for a signal that the demands had been met?
- Was the release of Anwar Ibrahim, the prominent Malaysian politician and former deputy Prime Minister, who was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment on 7th March 2014, amongst the demands made to the Malaysian Government?
- Were the passengers and crew of MH370 held to ransom by the pilot?
- Were the passengers and crew still alive and held as pawns in a negotiation?
- Did the negotiation go wrong?
Or he asks was the pilot just checking that he was not being followed by using a holding pattern?
Or was the pilot just saying a final goodbye and taking one last breath before turning south into the Indian Ocean?
Or was the pilot continuing to act in a confused, indecisive, and disoriented manner?
Mr. Godfrey explains the set of tools thus:
“The WSPRnet Propagation Technical Analysis is based on the 2007 International Reference Ionosphere (IRI). The IRI is a permanent joint scientific project of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) started in 1968. It is the international standard empirical model for the terrestrial ionosphere since 1999.
“I use Proplab Pro V3.1 for tracing radio waves around the globe. Proplab Pro was one of the first ionospheric physics-based HF radio signal ray-tracing engines in the world for the PC and has been maintained and developed for over 30 years. It continues to be used by research organisations, scientists, engineers, students, the military and amateur radio operators around the world. It is one of the only software packages to reliably predict ionospherically refracted HF radio signal behaviour. It uses both three-dimensional models of the ionosphere as well as three-dimensional topographical data of the Earth to provide unprecedented detail in modelling HF radio signal propagation worldwide.
GDTAAA is a software application that I have developed that uses a Vincenty WGS84 navigation engine to track aircraft, a spherical navigation engine to track WSPRnet data links and anomalies. In addition, I use the Proplab Pro V3.1 engine with its embedded IRI 2007 ionospheric model to perform global ionospheric mapping and ray tracing.”
